Connections
by MP36PH3S
Summary: The events of one universe ends. But that doesn't meant time stops. And what happens when two canons collide? Or have they already been fused all along? One thing's for sure: nobody's walking away unscathed. This is partially canon to my StarCraft/Mega Man crossover, and a collecting place for scenes that I'm working on for practice. I'd greatly appreciate any feedback!
1. Prelude

**Jakob Project Moon Base, 21XX**

Sigma's programming "observed" X, Zero, and Axl's departure, noting with satisfaction that Lumine had managed to severely damage Axl. Good. One less problem to worry about.

He himself may have been defeated, however he was not bluffing when he told the trio that every new-generation Reploid contained a portion of him and could therefore serve as both a body and a minion. He also was aware that the world was being ravaged by the constant Maverick attacks. Unconincidentally this had also worn the ranks of the Hunters down. As with all things, the humans had reacted with increasing paranoia with each attack, and it was only a matter of time before that fear turned to hatred. Now all he had to do was watch events run their course...

* * *

**Moon Base, 2240**

Sigma could hardly have asked for his plan to go more smoothly. He had watched silently from the abandoned Jakob Project base as humanity's fears of the Reploid race stirred up ethnic conflict, with those pestilences X and Zero caught in the middle. Sigma was surprised to learn that Axl had been repaired, but the prototype had died alongside his closest friends. Unfortunately, without access to production facilities and unwilling to tip his hand by possessing human tech, Sigma had regrettably left his children to fend for themselves. However they had performed admirably, and though humanity eventually came out on top, it was by the barest of margins.

Humanity, of course, had evolved in both philosophy and technology during the course of the Reploid Purge. Though many had been disappointed to see the great Dr. Thomas Light's vision fail, they were more concerned with protecting themselves and their fear of advanced androids had lead them to completely redevelop their socities and technology. Power armor had been designed based around the armor of Reploids, and advanced gauss weaponry had been adopted in the place of energy shots to compensate for a human's lack of a solar core. Most importantly, automated (but not sentinent) machinery had been widely implemented to allow humanity to devote as many resources as possible to eradicating the Reploids. The hysteria also lead to an abandoning of more advanced forms of civilian tech that still required skilled (but not sentinent) AIs to manage. All in all, humanity had regressed about 50 years, then surged forward 10 along a completely different path.

The greatest change, however, came in the way the humans thought. With such an imposing threat, many gladly sacrificed their individual rights and agreed to live without the convenience of advanced robots. So strong was their fear that the nations of the world had unanimously ordainded that all advanced AIs capable of some form of independent thinking be banned. Given the slow political structure of human democracy, Sigma was impressed with the speed of the edict. More importantly, however, the nations of the world had come together to form the United Powers League in 2229 as the Reploid attacks reached unbearable intensities. Sigma had sensed the potential for corruption among the oligarchial structure of this new planetary government, and had briefly considered swaying them the same way he had Repliforce.

However the government soon deemed his plan obsolete, as the oligarchy of leaders shrunk until only a powerful triumvirate remained. This trio had played the human's fears of Reploids to the hilt for their own power, and had unified the loose coalition the UPL had been previously into an iron-fisted, totalitarian regime within a decade. However power-hungry these three were, however, they were not blinded by their lust. They realized that their regime could come tumbling down as the number of "criminals" became larger and the people had started demanding their freedoms back with the Reploid threat extinguished.

With this in mind, they had comissioned Project Celestia, lead by Doran Routhe. Their aim was to take their political enemies and discreetely eliminate them by colonizing other nearby Solar Systems. The project would not reach fruition for some time according to even the most optimistic estimates however...

Sigma, though unable to purge his own programming, had hung in a comatose state as his programming was incapable of traversing the void of space. During the last few years, however, he had been rather active after the revalation of a number of interesting findings. Part of Project Celestia required placing humans in cryogenic storage, something which scientists predicted could cause beneficial and detrimental mutations in humans. Not only that, but the former Reploid commander had received a "visit" from a mysterious figure who offered Sigma a long-awaited chance to strike at humanity again.

The figure had identified himself as Samir Duran, and Sigma's damaged programming had not thought to ask of the mysterious being's motives or origin during the former's visit. However, that mattered little to Sigma; he would at long last have his chance show humanity their arrogance in thinking the Reploid race so easily purged. At long last, humanity would revel in the potential of his kind, even if it meant their true extinction.

Duran had pointed out an advanced AI, bordering on Reploid intelligence, would be needed since the scientists would not trust nor train "convicts" to man a colonization fleet, and here Sigma saw his chance. He noted that the UPL repealed their entire ban on sentinent AIs rather than grant an exception. Good; it meant they did indeed think the Reploid threat was gone for good, and with all the scientists in government captivity, what did they have to fear?

Sigma's elation was cut short when he remembered that he could not travel through the vaccuum of space to infest the fleet computer. Duran had dismissed his worries, saying only that he would "take care of it."

* * *

**Earth Orbit, 2269**

Sigma sensed the colonization fleet mobilizing in orbit and knew it was time. He hoped Duran had done his part, but regardless, there was no turning back. Suddnely the Reploid found his programming being downloaded into the fleet's ALTAS supercomputer. As much as an ephemeral program could, Sigma smiled and went about his work as he had planned.

Immediately, the ATLAS computer detected the virus and began to counter it. However it failed to send a warning to its masters. This proved to be the computer's undoing. The Sigma Virus smashed through its firewalls and began to reprogram the AI. The computer fought its fate, making the process slow and tedious.

An hour later, technicians on Earth realized something was wrong with the ATLAS program, and proceeded to wipe the computer entirely and download a backup per protocool. As the computer began to purge its own code, Sigma realized his plan had fallen apart. There would be no last glorious revenge of his kind. He had failed his children...

Unbeknownst to both the technicians and Sigma, the last backup had occurred within minutes of the Sigma Virus's infestation. ATLAS had been sabotaged.

* * *

**Unknown location, 2269**

Duran cursed. His plan had gone awry by sheer luck. However, as he reached out with his mind, he realized part of the Sigma Virus was still active. Not enough to manipulate the fleet at his will, but enough to influence ATLAS into making small detours from its objective. Duran also knew the virus would grow in strength as time passed, and the colonization fleet would end up in his hands sooner or later.

* * *

**2 years later**

Sigma had grown stronger while ATLAS's resistance to his will continued to fade. Duran had yet to contact him with any further instructions, so for now the virus simply continued ATLAS's normal functions.

However, the few months had begun to reveal startling information Sigma knew his beneficiary would want to see. Mutations that caused telekinetic powers, also known as "psionic" powers, had begun to appear with increasing frequency among the hibernating passengers of the fleet, to the point where almost 50% of the population had them. ATLAS dutifully sent the information back to Earth of its own accord, but the virus sent out an identical transmission in the opposite direction shortly afterwards.

Immediately, Sigma felt Duran speak to him. The message contained only two words: "Korpulu Sector."

It was time to assert control. The virus leapt up from its semi-complacent state, overwhelming ATLAS's remaining defenses and its programming. Immediately Sigma also cut the communcations link with Earth, isolating it from any countermeasures its masters could deploy. The supercomputer's proper AI was caught off guard, and the Sigma virus succeeded in purging the coordinates of Earth and their destination from its mind. Now the computer had no choice but to bend to the virus' will if its directive of delivering the humans safely was to be achieved.

* * *

**Unknown location**

Duran sighed with relief. Sigma could hardly have been cutting it closer; the fleet was minutes from dropping out of warp when he asserted full control.

"Has the ploy gone according to plan?" spoke a new voice. Before answering, Duran dropped to his knee in a reverent bow.

"Indeed it has, my lord. Our compatriot has seized control of the human fleet and altered its course as planned."

"You have proven yourself once more to be my most competent agent, Duran. Continue to monitor their progress."

"Yes, master."

* * *

**Tarsonis System, 2300**

Sigma's programming had worn down during the long years of travel. ATLAS had not been nearly submissive as he had first thought, leaving the virus and the supercomputer's rightful AI in opposite standings from thirty years earlier.

Since seizing control, Sigma had recieved no orders from Duran. To make matters worse, the supercarriers' warp drives were almost completely out of fuel. Sigma was confident that Duran would be able to find them. However, unknown to him, ATLAS's proper AI had been interfereing with his objectives; the supercarriers had more fuel than Sigma thought, and all passengers had been brought to a state of light hibernation, from which they could be awoken instantaneously and recover within minutes rather than hours. Immediately, ATLAS seized its chance, rising up against its oppressor much as the virus had thirty years earlier. The irony was lost on both AIs however as they began to contest each other for control of the fleet. However the drop from warp space had initiated the unthawing of the passengers, something Sigma had not counted on. As the virus gained the upper hand in their struggle, ATLAS managed to trigger a hacking alert aboard its host ship, the_ Nagglfar_. This automatically locked down the ship's systems and reverted them to manual control.

Sigma would not be thwarted at the eleventh hour. It had happened time and again, but his years of dominance over the ATLAS AI had hardened his stance. From the start, Sigma knew that he would not back down. This was his final act of revenge, and by his maker he would see it through. At the thought of Dr. Cain, however, Sigma hesitated for a second. He did not understand why he had or how the memory had caused hesitation this one time out of many, but it was enough. ATLAS had managed to level the playing field, and even to alert awakening passengers of the situation. Sigma knew that they carried no antiviruses, but the computers on the other ships were now alerted to his presence. Before he could spread his influence across the fleet, ATLAS had already sent a warning, and the other three ships quickly warped out of the system in various directions. The two AIs continued to battle for control, unaware that as they were doing so their host ship was drifting closer to Tarsonis as they slingshotted around the planet's moon.

The nagging in the back of Sigma's conciousness about Dr. Cain continued to grow worse as the struggle wore on. Sigma was getting increasingly frustrated as ATLAS appeared to be gaining the upper hand. ATLAS, now realizing what was happening to its charge, began to speed the ship up, hoping to land it before Sigma re-asserted control. Sigma waited until the ATLAS AI began to lower its guard as the ship entered Tarsonis's gravitational field. At that moment, Sigma struck, taking over control and speeding up the ship as much as possible in the hopes of creating a completely fatal crash. If nothing else, he could ensure at least these humans would feel his wrath!

ATLAS managed to re-assert control minutes before impact, slowing the ship down and changing its trajectory enough to ensure some survival. Sigma's programming, weakened by 30 years of complacency and neglect, to say nothing of the brutal struggle that had ensued, was unable to resist. ATLAS, however, was weakening too. Even commanding a single ship was now a strain on the AI, and it knew that its programming would not survive intact. It could only hope that Sigma's was weak enough to be obliterated completely.

However, Sigma had not been resigned to his fate. He had known that powered combat and excavation suits were aboard the_ Nagglfar_, and he proceeded to infect the entire ship's store of them to try and physically destroy the ATLAS computer. However what he didn't know was that ATLAS had access to lockdown codes in the event of revolt. Using these, the AI promptly shut down the power suits.

Except for one. Sigma had somehow managed to override the shutdown code in the suit he was phyically possessing. Speaking through the suit, he roared: "I have been thwarted time and again! This time, _I will not be stopped!_" Even without a gauss rifle, the words rang true enough; Sigma had reached the room that physically contained ATLAS with almost no resistance from the passengers. Sigma forced his way into the room and proceeded to smash the computer with all of the suit's strength.

That was as far as he got. In the next second, the supercarrier fragmented upon colliding with the surface of a planet for the first time in seventy years. Among the various other pieces of debris, Sigma's power suit was thrown from the wreckage and thoroughly pulverized by the hull of the supercarrier as the starship ground to a halt. With no nearby technology to possess, it seemed that Sigma met the same end as his suit, his programming at long last defeated. The Reploid race had, at long last, been purged. Or so humanity thought.

ATLAS had shut down upon finally completeing its objective. Its charges were safe, and there were enough survivors to set up a colony. Though they had landed far beyond their destination, humanity would survive. The computer could only hope that the other three ships would make planetfall sometime...

With little technology, the colonists began to salvage ATLAS's memory for schematics and recycle its components for much-needed resources. As they took the computer apart, they found a strange anomoly. Nobody knew what it was beyond a small chip of glowing blue stone. Many people began to clutch their heads as if hearing voices and some collapsed outright upon gazing at the stone. Frightened and with no good use for it, the colonists discarded it several miles outside their settlement.

Little could they know how much their decision would affect their fate...

* * *

**New Gettysburg, Tarsonis, March 2500**

Despite being reduced to a mere spectator of the events he had fomented, Sigma was still alive. No longer was he able to possess or even influence anyone, however the Reploid AI was content simply with having survived given that all the unfolding events were of his making, and in the midst of what was happening, there was more than enough to see. Now once more within an atmosphere, Sigma was free to roam about as he chose, watching humanity destroy itself with relish, particularly during the Guild Wars. However, Sigma had never strayed far from the one thing that made it all possible: a shard of the xel'naga artifact that had been used to download him into ATLAS. Maybe it was out of sentimental value? He didn't know or care. He simply preferred to hang around where its signature radiated from.

Unbeknownst to him, however, the site would also become the location of one of the most defining moments in the history of the Korpulu sector.

Sigma already knew that several months prior, aliens had attack humanity. Not just one race, but two: one who called themselves the Protoss, and another called the Zerg. Both races were inherently at odds with each other, and the humans, or Terrans as they had come to call themselves, were caught in the middle. And now both species had been drawn to the seat of human power as the result of a megalomaniac's attempt to seize power. Sigma laughed to himself upon hearing his thoughts. Who was he to judge this man who had summoned an alien invasion for his own ends? Nonetheless, in the 200 years since humans had arrived in the sector Sigma had heard of and seen atrocities that exceeded his own by far: the bombarding of Korhal IV with nuclear missiles made the missile strike on Abel City all those years ago look like a fireworks display, and now he was about to witness the ultimate act of selfishness.

A sudden explosion shook Sigma had ever witnessed before. Instead of orange flames and black smoke, he saw a burst of cyan and blue (oh how he hated those colors) light as gold fragments were scattered everywhere. This must have been the location of a Protoss building. Sigma could not sense any Zerg nearby though. Odd. Suddenly Sigma noticed several human soldiers running from the site of the explosion, chased by several warriors in golden armor. As he watched, two of the warriors dashed forward, closing the gap to the straggling soldiers and eviscerating them within seconds. The remaining humans retaliated, but still the warriors came. When they had been defeated, only three soldiers were left.

Almost immediately after the Protoss withdrew, from the other side monstrous creatures began to assault the small group. As he watched, one of the soldiers fell behind and was immediately swamped by zerglings. As a final sacrifice, the soldier pulled a grenade out and detonated it. The other suddenly collapsed for apparently no reason, though when his body rolled over Sigma could see seven spines embedded in the visor. Sigma noted with admiration the soldiers' courage, but by now he was more interested in the sole remaining member of the group, who had disappeared.

Within minutes, the soldier decloaked just feet from his "location", and Sigma got a good look at her. He was greatly surprised to see she was female, and recognized that she must have inherited the psionic mutation that the original colonists had developed.

"Even the humans on Earth never conscripted females into their armies during the Reploid Purge," Sigma mused. "The Confederates must be really..." His thoughts were interrupted as he eavesdropped on a transmission from her.

"This is Kerrigan. We've neutralized the Protoss but there's a wave of Zerg inbound on this position. We need immediate evac."

If only she knew how close they were. Sigma could hear a hydralisk attempting to bash down a wall behind him. It didn't worry him; the structure had collapsed already and any debris passed through him. His thoughts were interrupted by a reply, one that stunned him.

"Belay that order. We're moving out."

After almost 300 years of causing strife and destruction to humans and another 100 taking sadistic pleasure in watching them destroy themselves, Sigma could not have thought that anything could disturb him. However, the past few months had proven him dead wrong. First came the nuclear apocalypse on Korhal IV, then the Protoss incinerations of Chau Sara and Mar Sara. Then had come Arcturus Mengsk's baiting of the Zerg to both Antiga Prime and Tarsonis. And finally, this. Sigma had seen infested humans in use by the Swarm. It didn't take his excellent judge of character to know that death was preferrable.

Digging noises behind Sigma caught his attention. A single zergling was pawing the dirt curiously as it tried to unearth a faintly glowing blue-black object while the hydralisk looked on. However, several other zerglings had proceeded to assault Kerrigan. She quickly put down the advancing beasts with her rifle. The gunshots drew the attention of the hydralisk, which tore down the wall of the mostly-collapsed building that Sigma had claimed as his residence and began to spew spines at Kerrigan. The ghost fired back and scurried further down the barrier she had been hiding behind. As Kerrigan felled the beast with a counterattack, Sigma realized the shard had probably saved her life by distracting the hydralisk during the zergling assault. Another burst of gunfire and another hydralisk fell.

Meanwhile, the zergling that had been trying to unearth the fragment gave up and retreated around the opposite side of the building. Sigma watched it leave as Kerrigan sent out another request for evac. Sigma was too far away to pick up transmissions between vessels of the rebel fleet but he watched in shock as the armada began to pull out of orbit and warp away.

"Commander? Jim? What the hell's going on up there...?" Kerrigan's voice trailed off as the ground began to shake. As she pulled down her goggles to scan the vicinity, Sigma felt an odd twist of something he couldn't quite describe. He didn't need sensors to know what was coming for her.

He watched with a mixture of dismay, sympathy, and detachment as Kerrigan dropped her rifle and threw her goggles to the ground. He'd been similarly cornered time and again by X, Zero, and later Axl, so it wasn't hard to sympathize with the poor ghost. He could sense Kerrigan's anger and disbelief at being betrayed, but those feelings were quickly drowned by despair as she realized her knight in shining armor couldn't save her this time.

_"Why didn't I listen to him, dammit? Jim was right again..."_

Instead of reveling in the schadenfreude of seeing humans abandon one of their own as he would have gladly done during the Reploid purge, Sigma felt...sympathy and...anger(?) upon hearing her thoughts. Maybe he had changed too after all these years...

A horde of zerglings quickly surrounded her, and mutalisks soared overhead. Sigma's soul watched as the ghost looked up to the sky before a hydralisk struck her in the back of the head and she collapsed. Several zerglings came forward and dragged the limp body away.

Sigma suddenly had an odd thought. If he had digitized her...no, that wasn't his creed, and he couldn't possess her to start the process anyhow. He lived to punish humans for hindering the development of Reploid potential, though what he had just seen exceeded any form of cruelty either him or his human captors could ever have dreamed of. The xel'naga shard hadn't saved her after all. If anything, it doomed her to a worse fate. The universe works in strange ways.

The Maverick leader tore his attention from the Zerg dragging Kerrigan away and stared at the ruins of New Gettysburg. He had a lot to think about.

* * *

**Author's note: I apologize if the Sigma/ATLAS struggle came out poorly; two AIs battling for control gives very little to write about.**

**There is one critical assumption I made in writing this: the events of _Mega Man Zero _and _Mega Man ZX_ do not occur. This is a connection between the X/Classic series and _StarCraft _and as such will not feature characters exclusive to either _Zero_ or _ZX_.**

**To clear up any confusion, no, telepaths can't read an advanced AI's mind nor can they telepathically speak to them or sense them. Sigma, however, can read Kerrigan's mind as Reploids can scan humans but he can't speak to her.**

**As to exactly how the xel'naga fragment works, I will leave to you guys...**

**I also decided to add a recognizable _StarCraft_ event for the sake of making it feel more like a crossover.**


	2. Random Interactions

**Author's Note: A random bit involving characters from both ****_StarCraft_**** and classic ****_Mega Man_****. Completely acanon, and takes place after ****_Wings of Liberty_**** but before ****_Heart of the Swarm _****(****_HoTS_**** units will still appear) as will the rest of the snippets with unclear time frames.**

**So the context is that the characters from the two universes have just met and found out Dr. Wily is in league with Mengsk to kill them.**

* * *

_**Hyperion **_**Armory, Deep space**

Rory Swann was furious at having to spend his off time babysitting Drs. Light and Cossack's Robot Masters. It wasn't the Robot Masters themseleves he minded more than wasting his free time. Quite the contrary; they seemed mature enough and, if nothing else, Elec Man, Pharaoh Man, and Tornado Man kept them in line for the most part, aided by the fact that Splash Woman (**A/N: she has legs**) almost always listened to them. Go figure.

Many of them had already managed to earn Swann's respect by helping out. Bright Man and Splash Woman were helping with internal repairs, Hornet Man's drones were helping with resource transfers, Dust Man was helping with recycling, Galaxy Man was outside checking the hull for defects, Dive Man and Bomb Man were helping with ammunition production, Time Man and Plant Man were accompanying the doctors in Stetmann's lab, and Oil Man had been producing lubrication oil as fast as he could for the Raiders' various machines, to name the ones Swann had kept track of.

There had also been those who had no purpose, and though nine of them had taken it upon themselves to train in their spare time there were also those who were idle. With nothing but neosteel surrounding them, neither Guts Man nor Concrete Man could do much to help keep the ship in order, and Magma Man kept smirking evily every time he came near Oil Man. If not for Fire Man's repeated warnings Magma Man probably would have already torched Oil Man; as it was, he had to settle for slowly burning off the fur on Ice Man's parka before the latter had noticed and frozen him solid.

And then there was Jewel Man. As much as Swann knew that the limitless supply of gems could easily solve their financial issues, Jewel Man's attitude essentially flaunted the fact that he knew it and that infuriated the chief engineer. While he couldn't blame the crew for being distracted by shiny objects, especially whenever Jewel Man began showing off by juggling them or making them orbit his body, it was highly counterproductive as Plug Man, who was recharging a squad of Predators, seemed deathly afraid of gems. To make matters worse, the idle Robot Masters had learned to pay the showoff no heed. After Jewel Man began singing for the fifth time, Tornado Man noticed Swann's furious expression and ordered Jewel Man to shut up "before the nice man with the claw snaps and crushes your head to scrap and gemdust."

Swann facepalmed. He wasn't a psychologist, but making empty threats on someone else's behalf was definately not on his list of ways to deal with Jewel Man. Mega Man might only yell at his fellow Light-bots if they did something to one another, but none of the _Hyperion_ crew had seen enough of him to know what he would do if Swann harmed a Light-bot, justifiably or not. Jewel Man immediately began singing again and juggling more gems. This was going to be a long day...

* * *

_**Hyperion**_** Cantina**

Mega Man and Proto Man, or Rock and Blues (since they had de-armored), stood in the corner watching the crew enjoy themselves while they waited for Raynor and Horner to arrive. Roll was already socializing, and her gender meant she had that much less trouble fitting in.

"Why were we programmed to be able to socialize anyhow?" Rock sighed.

"You never know when it might come in handy, Rock. That programming's helped me more than once when I've had to blend in, and even if you are the most recognizable face on Earth nobody knows you here. You never know when those skills might come in handy..."

As if on cue, Jim Raynor walked in, followed by a beautiful redhead that Rock hadn't seen before. Horner followed the pair, looking slightly uncomfortable. "Maybe strife does bring out the best in some people, if I remembered anything from my single Korpulu Sector history lesson," Rock remarked to his brother as the two walked over to the trio's table.

"Don't you ever take off those sunglasses?" The woman remarked to herself as the two of them approached. Blues slowed his pace to let Rock take the lead. Rock looked back and shot an exasperated look at his brother before turning to face the redhead.

Sarah wasn't quite sure what to make of these two. They were boys in physical appearance, but their feet were enclosed in oddly-shaped boots. Or were those their actual feet? _"Okay, they're definately not human."_

Another unsettling realization was that she couldn't read their minds, though the one with blue feet/shoes was almost broadcasting his emotions. "Umm...hi. The name's Mega Man, but you can call me Rock." Rock extended his hand.

Despite her misgivings, Sarah shook his hand. "I'm Kerrigan." Turning her attention to Blues, she continued,"And you didn't answer my question."

"People never want to know my name," the red robot grumbled. "They're more interested in the sunglasses, the scarf, always something besides me..." Without another word, he stalked off to watch Roll.

"If I told you what was under them, you wouldn't believe me." Rock said after a few awkward seconds.

"Oh? Try me."

"Another pair of sunglasses." Upon seeing her reaction, he continued, "No, I'm dead serious. His eyes aren't designed to look human like mine."

"So you aren't human. If not for the feet you would have had me fooled."

"That and the fact you can't read minds." Sarah almost fell out of her chair in shock. They hadn't even met for more than five minutes and he already knew? Rock held his hands up in a placating gesture.

"Whoa whoa, I can't read minds either. But my sensors can detect telepathy, or, in this case, attempts at it." Rock immediately realized he'd offended her but didn't realize how. "Was it something I said?"

Before Sarah could respond, Jim spoke up. "So I guess we owe you and your...brothers...one for saving us from the Dominion." He spoke the term as if he had trouble believing it. Though, given that all the Light-bots with the exception of him and Blues looked completely different from one another, that was understandable.

"It's all part of my job, sir. First Law of Robotics." At this, Matt spoke up.

"I thought those rules had long been overturned. And at any rate, some of the boarders were just like you guys; they looked like humanoids dressed in combat armor. Care to explain?"

"Matt, give it a rest, these guys - " Rock politely cut him off.

"Regardless of whether they apply here, in our universe they do, and since we're from that universe we're bound by its laws governing our behavior rather than this one's. I fought one of the boarders that you described. Before you say anything, there was only one; Gemini Man has a cloning device built into his body." Ignoring the puzzled looks the Terrans were giving him, Rock pressed on. "Those robots were likely under the control of Dr. Wily. Wily routinely ordered his robots to violate the Laws, and they were programmed to be able to do so on their own if he didn't directly mandate them to."

"You said this android you fought...Gemini Man...had a cloning device?" Sarah asked, curious.

"It's just a hologram projector. He can either make a single, solid one that has his full combat capabilities besides additional cloning. Or he can produce virtually infinite illusions, which don't do any of those things."

How could such advanced tech have existed in the 20th century only to be lost to the Terran colonizers of Korpulu?

* * *

**Imperial Palace, Augustgrad, Korhal**

Arcturus Mengsk looked up as ten figures walked into his contingency room. Well, ten figures and a dog. Though he already knew them, a tyrant could never be too careful.

"Dr. Albert Wily, I presume? Your minions hardly lived up to your promises."

Eight of the figures hissed in anger at Mengsk's words, but it was Wily who spoke. "My Robot Masters are designed to take on an individual in one-on-one combat. Not a squadron of Marauders. And those two goody-two-circuits followed me here. You were lucky that I was able to at least repair my forces at all."

"That's not an excuse, Doctor. I asked you to dispatch the Raiders, and you failed. We no longer have the element of surprise."

"It matters not, Mengsk. We will simply try again, this time with _all_ of my Robot Masters."

_"What? Why didn't you use them all the first time!"_ Mengsk was furious.

At that, one of the robots and the dog...no, it was a wolf...stepped forward. "Look, asshole, I don't care who you are, but you show the Doc some respect or you'll be sorry that you didn't! Do you have any idea why he only uses eight before you go questioning him?" The wolf growled and both of them trained their weapons on Mengsk.

"Enough, Bass. We will leave you, your highness." As he watched the Robot Masters leave, Mengsk found himself questioning their assistance for the first time. They had no respect for authority other than Wily's, and not having direct control over such powerful androids made employing them a dangerous gamble.

* * *

_**Hyperion**_

Rush suddenly stirred from his resting place at Rock's feet and nudged the latter with his nose before getting up and running to the armory. Rock sighed and ran after his dog, armoring up as he did so. A curious Sarah followed them while Matt and Jim continued to talk to Blues.

When he got to the Armory, Rock found Jewel Man pinned against the wall by his neck, with Rory Swann's fist acting as the pin. The other Robot Masters were looking on with either disinterest or rapt attention, and Pharaoh Man was pretending to take no notice. "For the last time, SHUT UP!"

"Swann, back off, please. I'll take care of Jewel Man. And...I apologize for his behavior. He's a nice guy when you know him more, actually." With that Rock moved on to Jewel Man.

"They never turn out that way," Swann grumbled but took released his grip on Jewel Man's neck. Rock and Rush walked forward and dragged the half-concious robot to a far corner. On cue, Elec Man and Tornado Man entered the armory and, upon sizing up the situation, followed.

"Jewel Man, you should know better. Here your brothers are trying to make friends, and you're undermining our work by being a nuisance." Elec Man admonished.

"What? I'm bored. I can't help it if all my means of amusement are distracting. You're just jealous I got more attention."

At this, sparks flew from Elec Man's hands. "Do not force me to use _this _to make my point." he snarled and gestured at Rock, who immediately facepalmed.

"If you're such a good fighter, why don't you take me on yourself instead of hiding behind Rock?"

Before Elec Man could respond, Tornado Man returned with Galaxy Man, who had finished his scan of the hull and given the results to Swann. The chief engineer's mood improved significantly as he read the report; despite the interior damage the exterior hull remained sound. He looked up and realized his day just got even better as he saw Jewel Man's expression at being confronted by Galaxy Man. Without a word, Galaxy Man launched a strange capsule from his underbelly and the ring of robots broke up. The Terrans watched in shock as a vortex appeared out of nowhere and pulled Jewel Man into it. The small black hole wasn't strong enough to swallow him, stretch him, or even destroy him, nor did it last long enough to inflict much damage beyond shattering Jewel Man's crystals and mangling his armor. But Jewel Man was terrified by it and meekly obeyed his brother's orders afterwards.

Rock groaned. "Galaxy Man! I told you not to use your Black Hole Bomb! He got the point already and we don't need to be scaring people!"

"Bl-Black Hole Bomb?!" Sarah spluttered incredulously.

Rock whirled around at hearing her voice and promptly banged his helmet against the gun barrels of a siege tank, drawing a laugh from the _Hyperion_ crew. Rock got back to his feet. "I didn't know you followed me!" he exclaimed, slightly flustered. "But...yes, that's a black hole in principle. I don't want to bore everyone to death with technical details but the black hole is temporary and doesn't affect the user. I have no idea how Dr. Light pulled that off."

Suddenly Blues made himself known with his signature whistle and addressed his brother. "We need you on the bridge. Things are going to get ugly real soon and real fast. And..." He turned to Sarah. "Commander Raynor wanted you to come too. Something about not wanting to see you walking off with a boy..."

"No rest for the weary," Rock sighed. "Come on, Rush." Sarah followed the trio, hoping nobody had seen her blush at Blues' words. "Wily's probably just contacted us and threatened to wipe us all out again. Subtlety has never been his strong point."

With typical Terran cynicism, Sarah spoke up. "What would you expect Rock? The whole reason he went senile in the first place was because he was so subtle nobody cared about him. Yes, I paid attention to the cross-universe history lesson we had yesterday."

* * *

**Author's Note: So...randomness. That's pretty much all there is to this one, but I'll probably do another snippet that takes place after the characters have gotten acquainted with one another. If you couldn't tell, the threat of Amon doesn't exist here and we're back to sector infighting.**

**My characterization probably suffered a bit from this one. Not to worry, I'll keep refining it before I begin the actual crossover. I didn't give the _Mega Man 9_ Robot Masters much personality because I suck at creating personas and they don't have an official one, so developing personalities for them will certainly be interesting.**


	3. Crossover Combat

**Author's Note: So some people were interested to see how characters from the different universes did in combat against each other. I'll be honest, before I wrote this section, I hadn't considered it much.**

* * *

**Bridge, ****_Norad IV_**

Wily watched the view as the Dominion squadron responsible for transporting his forces plotted their next move in trying to track down the elusive _Hyperion_. As much as his Robot Masters were enjoying the ship and its combat training facilities, Wily couldn't understand the Dominion's twisted sense of sentimentality. This was the fourth ship to bear the name, and since all three previous incarnations had met horrific ends one would think that the name bore bad luck, at least when it came to combat. Then again, it could also be the result of the hotheaded captains that had always commanded the _Norad_ battlecruisers.

This time, Wily was determined to change that. Though a Duke was the CO of the squadron and the captain of the battlecruiser, Wily had the authority to override him if the need arose. There would be no hotheaded rush into oblivion...

Wily's thoughts were interrupted as a message arrived. Odd. It had been addressed to him rather than Duke, and the doctor's presence aboard the _Norad IV_ was supposed to be nonexistent. When he read the sender's name it made sense. _"Shadow Man, you clever bastard."_ Apparently, sneaking around Snake-style disguised as a wood stump on a ship with none of the substance worked.

* * *

**Bridge, ****_Hyperion_**

"Get Jim in here already. He knows he's supposed to be on watch."

"I already volunteered to take it, Captain Horner. I don't understand why you're so adamant about having the commander do it," Rock grumbled.

Matt didn't reply. Rock already inferred his mistrust of androids and the captain didn't feel the former needed an explanation.

"Fine, I'll go get him." Rock sighed. "I'm a nice guy, but I'm not your courier, Captain."

"Be sure to knock first," Blues called as his brother walked out.

As he neared the captain's quarters, Rock noticed something. A log sitting upright with Japanese markings on it. Though it hadn't moved since it had somehow appeared on the ship, the fact that similar logs had been found in communications center and other places where recent mishaps had occured made Rock highly suspicious of them. However the log didn't do anything as Rock walked past to the captain's quarters. As soon as he turned his back, the log disappeared and a shadow moved along the wall towards him.

There was no response to the knock, which only confirmed Rock's suspicions. As he knocked again Shadow Man struck. It was a quick strike to the head that would have incapacitated any human, but Shadow Man realized who he had targeted as Rock staggered to his feet and armored up simultaneously (**A/N: They found a way to hid their feet**). Without hesitating Shadow Man brought out a kunai and attempted to stab it into Rock's face. With both of them too close to use ranged weapons, Shadow Man knew he had the advantage as he could turn invisible and had a knife. Suddenly Rock changed colors to brown-and-white, and with a single arm knocked Shadow Man off of him and threw him into the wall. Unfortunately the super strength sent the hapless Robot Master through the wall. Rock groaned at his own stupidity as Shadow Man sized up a very surprised Jim and Sarah.

Recognizing who they were, the Robot Master immediately drew a Shadow Blade and prepared to throw it. Rock ran into the room and grabbed Shadow Man before throwing him back out into the hallway, this time minding his strength. He ran back out into the hallway to confront the Robot Master.

"This isn't over, Mega Man!" Shadow Man snarled quietly and turned invisible. A shipboard alert had already been put out, but beyond that Rock couldn't do anything without detection.

"Uh...are you guys okay?" Rock asked without looking back at the duo.

"Shaken but not stirred. That happened earlier. Oh, you can look, I'm decent now." Rock hid his groan of disgust at Sarah's attempt at humor and walked inside. "Who was that?"

"Another one of Wily's Robot Masters. If he attacked, that means..." The _Hyperion_'s laser batteries suddenly opened up. "...that. Wily's probably going to try to board us again; I'll go head his force off. You two...do...whatever you do to defend the ship." Without another word the android sprinted down the hall to meet up with Blues.

* * *

**Docking Tube C, _Norad IV_**

"Let's go, retards! Bring those two Hellbats down already!" Quick Man snapped.

"A little busy!" Flash Man ran by with a Predator on his trail. Though he could freeze the drone, his buster shots did virtually nothing. Quick Man sighed and launched his Quick Boomerangs. They decapitated the drone and breached its power core, causing an explosion. Now free, Flash Man began to freeze the remaining Raiders with his Time Stopper. Once they had been dispatched Crash Man and Metal Man stepped forward to deal with the Hellbats. Even their thick armor couldn't withstand a Crash Bomber, and Metal Blades met naplam tank as two massive explosions marked the Hellbats' fate.

The team stormed aboard the _Hyperion_, only to be met by Rock. "You know the drill: surrender or I have to terminate you." Of course they would chose the latter. Rock sighed. "Very well..."

"Come on!" Metal Man egged his comrades as they fought. "It's eight of us against him; he can't take us all at once!"

"You'll be surprised at what I _can_ do, Metal Man!" Rock's body began to change colors and Metal Man's eye's widened as he was cut to ribbons by a volley of his own weapon. Quick Man came flying out of nowhere, preparing to stab Rock in the back with a boomerang, but suddenly he was frozen by Time Stopper. Only Flash Man remained immune to its effects, but when fighting on equal footing he was at a clear disadvantage. Rock switched back to Metal Blades and disabled Flash Man too. Changing weapons to Air Shooter, he blew Crash Man away, diverted one of his bombs into Quick Man's path, and scattered Wood Man's Leaf Shield, sending the razor leaves straight into Air Man's propeller. As Wood Man was sliced by another volley of Metal Blades, Air Man's fan seized and exploded. Rock left him alive and dove aside as Heat Man screamed past. As Heat Man came out of his dash, Rock stuck his buster into the boxy body and fired a Bubble Lead. The sulfuric acid dissolved Heat Man's circuits, and the robot shut down. Bubble Man had finally managed to waddle into the _Hyperion_ only to find his comrades all dead.

"Ah! Don't kill me!" Rock sighed and dragged him back into the docking tube of the _Norad IV_ before disconnecting it and rushing off to another location. He was glad Dr. Light had backed up all of the Master Weapon data even though neither of them were hoping it would be needed again.

* * *

**Hangar Bay, _Hyperion_**

Aqua Man screamed as a siege tank shock cannon blasted him as he tried to get to cover. The white-hot tungsten fragments shredded his body, leaving only scrap and a puddle of water on the armory floor.

"Dammit, we don't have time for this! As much as I hate that fat fuck we can't afford casualties! Astro Man, give us some cover fire!" Tengu Man yelled from behind the wreckage of a dropship.

Astro Man nodded and raised his hands as they glowed green. "ASTRO CRUSH!" A massive hail of green meteors rained down on the stunned Terran defenders, flattening them where they stood. The Robot Masters quickly broke cover and took full advantage of the distraction. Astro Man hovered over them, providing continuous suppressive fire from his orb turrets. The Raiders surrendered as their position became undefendable, but the Robot Masters weren't interested and brushed past them. As they came into a hallway though, they were immediately struck by an EMP blast.

"So predictable," Sarah chided as she decloaked in front of them. Tengu Man recovered first and tried to slice her in half with his blade, but Sarah dodged it easily. Astro Man suddenly swooped in, having avoided the effects of the EMP blast as he was still in the hangar. Before Sarah could aim her rifle, Astro Man disappeared. The other Robot Masters were slowly recovering, but they were still in no shape to fight. Sarah threw herself to the floor as Astro Man swooped over her. As she got up, Astro Man raised his hands again and suddenly there were dozens of replicas of him surrounding the ghost, all of them firing. Sarah cloaked immediately and the Copy Vision clones began firing everywhere trying to find her. Sarah gave a slight yelp of surprise as one of the shots grazed her suit, however the clones didn't have hearing so they didn't notice. Loading another EMP round, she fired it straight into the horde of clones. The burst of electrical energy shorted out Astro Man's hologram projector and all of the clones vanished.

By now, the other seven Robot Masters had recovered enough to continue their fight. Grenade Man launched his Flash Bombs, hitting the walls to bring down the deck above. "Ah!" Sarah gasped at the visual overload the bombs produced and closed her eyes. The blinding flashes didn't hinder her psionic abilities, though, and Sarah reflected one of the bombs back at Grenade Man with her mind. Grenade Man laughed as the bomb exploded in his face. He was too busy reveling in the explosion to notice Sarah launch a Kinetic Blast. The psionic blast struck Grenade Man, detonating his entire store of explosives and bringing down the weakened ceiling. The wreckage crushed the remains of Grenade Man, and Sarah ran towards the lift. No point staying here.

"Ah, fuck this! She's probably got a way out. I'll kill that bitch!" Tengu Man flew over the wreckage and escaped to the deck above.

"Slow down, Tengu Man. Your mobility is limited in these hallways and the rest of us can't keep up with your speed. You'll be exposed on your own. Besides, it's probably not wise to take on someone in possession of EMP and our objective is to capture the ship, not kill its crew." Sword Man reminded as he climbed up to join him. He turned to help Search Man and Clown Man up, aided by the recovered Astro Man. "Now help me get Frost Man up here." Tengu Man nodded his acknowledgement and moved to help the others lug Frost Man up. Despite the fiery nature of his weapon Sword Man maintained his cool under almost all circumstances, and Tengu Man grudgingly listened to him out of respect.

As the Robot Masters continued on towards the front of the battlecruiser, Sarah stepped out of a lift on the level. Unfortunately the lift had opened just as Frost Man, who was at the rear of the group, was passing. "Oh sh-" Sarah's curse was cut off as Frost Man rocketed forward and rammed his fist into her. Frost Man's instinctive act hadn't left time to form an ice coating around his fist, so the punch wasn't as devastating as it could have been. Sarah also managed to avoid being sandwiched against the wall and the other Robot Masters hadn't noticed. Sarah slammed the doors shut psionically before Frost Man could recover and turned to face the other five Robot Masters. At seeing her properly for the first time, they hesitated. Dr. Wily hadn't bothered removing some aspects of Light's original Robot Master programming despite his being designed with social interaction as their lowest priority...

Sarah flashed them a seductive smile and slowly retreated from them. Though part of her was revolted at what she was doing she pushed it down. Sure, it made her extremely uncomfortable (even more when she realized she couldn't read their thoughts) but if showing herself off kept them from completing their objective she'd live with it. She heard the Robot Masters following her, albiet keeping their distance. As they walked past the lift, Sarah opened the door and Frost Man burst out, smashing his comrades against the wall. She fired another EMP round while the Robot Masters tried to recover from the confusion. Now without fear of attack, she approached them and killed them in succession.

When she reached Sword Man, the latter weakly offered his hand. "Well...fought. You are...much craftier than I...gave you credit for." His voice suddenly hardened. "But not crafty enough." Sarah instinctively erected a psionic barrier around her and less than a millisecond later Tengu Man's blade rang out against it. The deflected blade impaled Sword Man in the face. So apparently attraction wasn't an entirely overriding directive...

"Do your worst then, Kerrigan. You're not taking me without a fight!" Tengu Man ripped his blades out of Sword Man and charged at Sarah, who was momentarily stunned by the _deja vu_ those words had invoked. She shook off the thoughts, but those few seconds were all Tengu Man needed to close the distance and deliver a mighty swipe of his blades. Though the Hostile Environment Suit and her psionic barrier deflected the swipe, the blades had cut completely through her suit and left cuts on her stomach. Had she not erected the barrier she would have been cut in half. Sarah had no time to register the pain as Tengu Man did a backflip and slammed his legs down on her head, the momentum of his charge throwing her to the ground.

"Some Queen of Blades you turned out to be!" he sneered. Though he had shot past her when she fell to the ground, Tengu Man wasn't done. He launched his blades from his arm. They began to spin rapidly as they fell, until they had created a minature tornado. Sarah rolled away from it, but Tengu Man had anticipated this and immediately grabbed hold of her, accelerating to high speed. The sudden acceleration and speed left Sarah slightly nauseous and unable to fight the grip. When they approached a wall, he let go of her, and kicked with all his might before reversing thrust to avoid hitting the wall himself. Sarah used an inertia blast to slow herself, and used the wall as a springboard to throw herself back at Tengu Man.

The demon robot looked behind him just in time to see Sarah's fist, glowing orange, make contact with his face. "Augh!" The shockwave from the psi-punch threw them apart, and Tengu Man landed next to Sarah's fallen rifle. He quickly cut it in half to deny her any more chances at using an EMP round. A Kinetic Blast told him that he should have focused on her instead. "She's...so...strong..." Tengu Man tried to get to his feet, his chest armor burned away by the blast. Sarah stood over him.

"I don't have to be the Queen to have power." Before she could say anymore Tengu Man quickly threw his head forward, hoping to gouge out an eye with his pointed nose. He didn't succeed, but the point made contact with one cuts on her stomach. Sarah reeled back and cried out, grabbing hold of the robot by his nose and snapping in half before using it to stab his exposed power core. The explosion was minor and Sarah managed to limp away from the scene, grabbing the back half of her rifle as she did.

* * *

**Access Hall F, _Hyperion_**

Raynor lined up another Dominion marine in his sights and squeezed the trigger. The C-14 Impaler bucked in his hands and six gauss spike shattered the orange visor. He knew he was handling the easy part of the boarding parties and it was frustrating him to hear their Robot Masters being overwhelmed and dying. It was even more disheartening to hear the same happening to his men. All the while the Wily Robot Masters refused to engage him. As if to emphasize the point Slash Man suddenly burst in front of him, chasing Bomb Man who was missing one arm. Raynor opened up with his gauss rifle, but the Wily bot dodged his bullets and a Hyper Bomb before cutting Bomb Man's other arm off. The severed arm was quickly joined on the floor by Bomb Man's head.

Raynor fired his entire clip at Slash Man. The bot dodged them all and laughed.

"Sorry to leave your bloodlust unsatisfied Raynor. I'd love to fight you, but the doctor's got other plans." With another screeching laugh Slash Man disappeared down another hallway. Immediately Raynor heard the distinctive sound of Galaxy Man's Black Hole Bomb and saw his chance. With Slash Man trapped in the vortex Raynor fired away. The gravity well only accelerated the bullets, and by the time the Black Hole Bomb expired Slash Man had been riddled with gauss spikes.

"Thanks, Commander. You know I'm not much good at taking people down by myself..." Galaxy Man seemed like he wanted to ask something but couldn't.

"I'll stick with you. At the very least it will keep you safe. Let's get to the armory; if I can't take you with me at least you can help defend that place." Galaxy Man looked visibly relieved to have an escort and the two set off.

No sooner had they set of than Yamato Man was thrown in their path, his armor smoldering from a Napalm Bomb. Raynor threw Galaxy Man back and dragged Yamato Man out of the way as Napalm Man unleashed a salvo of head missiles, shoulder rockets, and Napalm Bombs. Galaxy Man laid down a Black Hole Bomb and the projectiles disappeared into the maw. As it dissipated, Raynor opened up with his gauss rifle, and Yamato Man recovered enough to throw a spearhead from his staff. While the gauss spikes couldn't do much more than annoy Napalm Man, the spearhead smashed through his armor plating and fragmented inside his body, ripping his circuits apart and shutting Napalm Man down.

Yamato Man gave a bow to Raynor and thanked him in his strange accent before scurrying off to deal with another Wily bot. Raynor glanced oddly at the warrior before moving on. He knew that some of Light's Robot Masters were in fact fighters in an international tournament that had been reprogrammed by Dr. Wily and restored after their destruction by Light and Cossack. He'd have to ask about that later.

Drill Man and Toad Man ran (or, in Toad Man's case, hopped) past him, being pursued by a very angry Needle Man. The latter's head-mounted spikes had been dissolved when he had smashed them into Toad Man's toxic skin, but his Needle Cannon only hadn't killed Toad Man because Drill Man's thick armor had allowed him to block for his brother. Raynor fired a volley of gauss spikes, but they ricochetted off Needle Man's armor. Raynor drew his revolver and fired again. The heavy slug tore into Needle Man's armor; though it could't damage him it got the Robot Master's attention. Galaxy Man promptly deployed another Black Hole Bomb to suck in the Needle Cannon shots, but they were at a stalemate. As soon as the Black Hole Bomb faded, Toad Man re-appeared and leapt onto Needle Man's back, the acid-covered skin of the former melting Needle Man's armor. Needle Man howled in agony and threw Toad Man off before shredding his body with a massive burst of shells. Toad Man's valiant sacrifice was not in vain; Drill Man hand managed to walk within weapon range and launched a pair of Drill Bombs. The screech of metal as Needle Man's remaining armor was destroyed was lost in two booming explosions that left very little of the Wily bot standing. The three paid quick respects to Toad Man before progressing on towards the armory.

* * *

**_Hyperion _Lab**

Plant Man and Time Man had been on a nervous edge since the attack started, but the lab had remained unscathed. Suddenly the door opened and Sarah staggered in, clutching her stomach where Tengu Man's blades had left their mark.

"Good god, are you alright?!" Plant Man ran over while Time Man resealed the door.

"Ugh...damn flashback..." Sarah groaned. Plant Man laid her against a console and summoned his Plant Barrier, a combination of biological tissue from his own body and energy from his reactor. He caught one of the petals and placed it over the cuts and the wounds immediately began to heal. Sarah moaned with relief.

"Whatever cut you was coated with a hemotoxic compound that kept the wound open and made it feel more painful than it was," Plant Man informed her. "Don't worry, you'll be fine." The first petal had now faded completely as the last of its tissue and energy was used up, and Plant Man placed another over the wounds.

"Of...course...the one time I get distracted... I lose in the worst way possible..."

"Shh. You'll be fine. I'll have you healed up soon, and you can get back out there, _señorita_."

"Thanks...it's Plant Man, right?"

"_Si_," Plant Man answered with a slight blush. "A pleasure to be of assistance to the famous Sarah Kerrigan."

Sarah gave him a smile and sighed as she hefted what was left of her rifle. "I don't suppose you can repair this too?"

"I can. My semi-biological nature means I can both repair machinery and heal damaged tissue." Sarah watched as he cast another Plant Barrier petal on the rifle and it repaired within a minute. Smiling with satisfaction as she tested the rifle and determined it was in perfect working order, she motioned to Time Man to open the door and cloaked as she stepped back out into the fray, her red hair lingering for a fraction of a second before it too disappeared. _"What a girl,__"_ Plant Man mused. Tough, smart, and beautiful; no wonder Raynor fell for her.

* * *

**Author's Note: So as of now none of what I am doing is not the final version of what might appear in the crossover; I still have a large amount of plot to flesh out. I just created this scene to answer some of the questions that the previous short raised.**


End file.
